Disaster, emergency preparedness to be taught in Ottawa County

Ottawa County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Trainingwill begin an eight-week training program next week.

The basic training series will be taught from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday evenings beginning Feb. 5 at the Ottawa County Fillmore Street Complex, 12220 Fillmore St. in West Olive. The training is free for Ottawa County residents.

The training sessions will address the following: -- Disaster Preparedness -- Fire Safety --Disaster Medical Operations -- Light Search and Rescue -- CERT Organization -- Disaster Psychology -- Terrorism and CERT -- Disaster SimulationCERT is one of the five Citizen’s Corps programs under the USA Freedom Corps administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). CERT Teams in Ottawa County are organized through the Ottawa County Emergency Management Department. General information about CERT can be found at http://www.ready.gov/citizen‐corps. Training participants are not required to join CERT at the conclusion of training; however, information will be available at the training to learn more about how to apply for the CERT Team.

Interested residents should contact Lt. Glenn Bo of the Grand Haven Public Safety Department at boglenn@grandhaven.org or Sindee Maxwell, Ottawa County Citizen Corps coordinator, at smaxwell26@gmail.com or smaxwell@miottawa.org.